INDIAN farmers continued their blockade of major highways today as they marked 100 days of protest against three agricultural laws that they argue will wreck their livelihoods and increase food poverty.

“The message is loud and clear. Not an inch back until the demands are met,” the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) said.

Farmers stood on tractors waving flags, with speeches delivered from a makeshift stage as thousands gathered at a ring road on the edge of New Delhi.

They argue that the three laws will raise food prices and destroy the farming sector, which would be opened up to large agribusinesses. 

Their protests have spread across the country and garnered mass support, creating a political crisis for the Hindu chauvinist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Last weekend more than one million people attended a People’s Brigade rally in Bengal, while protests have also taken place against rising fuel prices and plans to privatise key sectors of the economy.

On Saturday demonstrations took place in the south-eastern state of Andhra Pradesh over government moves to privatise the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP).

Unions called the action and were supported by the state government, with bus workers taking strike action in protest. 

CPI-M spokesman K Ramakrishna said that the privatisation of the VSP was “not a small matter,” calling for government talks with all parties in Andhra Pradesh who, with the exception of the BJP, are opposed to the plans.

The party’s state secretary P Madhu welcomed the support for the protests but hit out at the government’s relentless drive to privatise public assets.

“The sea, the air — everything is going to be handed over to corporates. The government should take this decision back,” he said.